A drive device for pivoting windshield wipers is disclosed in the book: How Things Work: The Car published by Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim/Zurich, 1968, page 248. This drive is a multiple-step spur gear drive, the driven gear of which is eccentrically connected to a toothed rack. The toothed rack meshes with a pinion of an output shaft. The output shaft is driven to perform a reciprocating movement on the output side of the windshield wiper motor that functions as a drive source. The position of the rack axis and hence the direction in which the rack extends varies according to the stroke similar to the connecting rod of a crank drive.
A drive arrangement of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,431 A, in which a common motor-driven drive source, reversible in its direction of rotation, is provided for driving a vehicle pivoting windshield wiper and an additional mechanical actuator. A mechanism comprising a rack-and-pinion drive is arranged in the connection for the drive source of the vehicle windshield wiper. The connection is formed by a control magnet. The rack of the rack-and-pinion drive is linearly displaceable in the operating direction of the control magnet. The range of travel of the rack and pinion drive lying outside the range serving to drive the vehicle windshield wiper, forms an independent mechanical actuator decoupled from the windshield wiper drive. The windshield wiper assigned to the rear window of a tailgate is a pivoted rear window wiper. The tailgate lock is operated by the actuator, which has corresponding positional co-ordination or suitable mechanical reversals.
The object of the invention is to develop a drive arrangement of the aforementioned type with a view to possible wider applications.